I do invite you this morning to turn again to the book of Revelation chapter 14. And as you're doing that I just want to thank you all for your many prayers, many cards during this difficult season in my own life. But God has been very good and he has answered all of our prayers. And he has done exceeding, abundantly, above all that we could ask or even think. And it is good to be home. This is where my heart is. In this place. And I rejoice in being back. I think my accent might be a little bit thicker for a little while. But I'm sure you'll tune in to the frequency and I will be speaking American again in a couple of weeks. Let's read together from the book of Revelation. We're going to read from chapter 14. I'm going to read from verse 1 through to verse 12. We've already looked at verses 1 through 5, but I want to read that to get the connection as we move into verses 6 through 12, which will occupy our attention this morning. So let's read together Revelation 14 from verse 1. Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb. And with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps. And they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb. In their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. Then I saw another angel flying directly overhead with an eternal gospel to proclaim to those who dwell on earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people. And he said with a loud voice, Fear God and give him glory, because the hour of his judgment has come. And worship him who made heaven and earth, the sea and the springs of water. Another angel, a second, followed saying, Fallen, fallen is Babylon the Great, she who made all nations drink the wine of the passion of her sexual immorality. And another angel, a third, followed them, saying with a loud voice, If anyone worships the beast in its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand, he also will drink the wine of God's wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger. And he will be tormented with fire and sulphur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb. And the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever. And they have no rest day or night. These worshippers of the beast and its image and whoever receives the mark of its name. Here is a call for the endurance of the saints Those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. Amen. Let's pray together. Father, we come to you this morning as a corporate body of your people, delighting to worship you, aware that you have been exceptionally gracious to us. We thank you, Father, for the extravagance of your love to us in Jesus Christ. We thank you for the wonder of your grace to us and bringing us from death to life and rescuing us from the bondage of sin and bringing us into the liberty of the sons of God. We ask now that as we turn to your Holy Word, that you would speak, that we would hear. We pray, Father, for the grace of faith to believe the things that your Word teaches. We pray, Father, that the things that we hear and the things that we believe would shape the way that we live so that our lives might bring glory and honour and praise to the Lamb who was slain and who has risen from the dead and who sits enthroned in glory and who will come again to judge the world. Hear us, we pray. Minister to us now, we ask our Father. Grant to us the help of your Spirit for Jesus' sake. Amen. One of the great encouragements that has arisen in the last decade of evangelical Christianity, I believe, is the resurgence of the biblical gospel in the life of many churches. Various ministries have arisen with a clear and solid emphasis on the true, historical, biblical gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many books are being written with a gospel-centeredness that is encouraging and edifying Conferences are springing up all over the place with much focus on gospel centrality. And for these things we surely should be glad and thankful. However, in the midst of all of this good activity and this healthy recovery of the gospel, as a pastor you're caught sometimes to step back and analyse it. and reflect on it and consider it and in doing that there is perhaps in my personal judgment one element of the truth of God that has suffered in a way that I believe is not so healthy and is perhaps a little bit concerning. The concerning element about the resurgence of the biblical gospel in our generation, I think, is the evident over-emphasis, in some quarters, of the positive side of the message only. With the parallel, it has to be said, under-emphasis of the negative side of the message. Now whilst it is right, and it is appropriate to proclaim the good news of the accomplishment of redemption through Jesus Christ, and we must always do that, it is equally important to proclaim that it is a redemption from sin, from hell, and from eternal destruction. Otherwise, It really doesn't make any sense. The New Testament, I think, clearly bears testimony to the both ends of these realities. Not the either or. To the positive redemption accomplished by Christ from the negative reality of sin. The positive rescuing from the terrible reality of hell, the eternal glory, rather than the horrifying eternal punishment. You see, that's all the counsel of God that is contained in the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The gospel is in many ways a message of dramatic contrast. Bringing us from darkness to light. Bringing us from bondage to liberty. Rescuing us from sin to righteousness. It is a message of dramatic contrast. These dramatic contrasts I do believe are clearly seen in this passage that we're returning to this morning in Revelation chapter 14. Having spoken of his vision of the Lord and his redeemed people in verses 1-5, and we read it together and we looked at it before the turn of the year, John now speaks of seeing three angels in verses 6-11 with a little ending in 12, He now speaks of seeing three angels communicating the other side of the coin, the contrast of the end of the unredeemed and what happens to the unbeliever in contrast to what happens to the believer at the end of the world. Now this therefore is a very sobering and serious passage that we're faced with this morning. And I believe, as we'll see in verse 12, it is actually designed to specifically stir the Christian church up to greater faithfulness, to more perseverance in the midst of what is a fallen, cursed and condemned world. And so as we look at this passage of great contrast, which is in keeping with the whole theme of the New Testament and the truth of the Gospel, we're going to take up the vision of the angels and the judgment of God. I'm sorry that I have to come back to my first sermon and preach at one level on the judgment of God, but I'm not sorry in the sense that this is where we're at in the book of Revelation. And I want you to see, first of all, the sobering emphasis of the three angels that are depicted in this particular part of John's vision. John informs us, after seeing a vision of Christ and His redeemed in eternal glory, verses 1 through 5, he says that he now sees three angels flying through the heavens, declaring various aspects of the same message. Notice the first angel. is depicted as declaring an eternal gospel to all people. His main emphasis, it would appear, is that of judgment. The hour of God's judgment has come. So if you want to try and think of this in a simple sense, Angel 1, judgment. Angel 2, is seen as declaring the fall of Babylon. Now, it's not the literal Babylon of the Old Testament, so much as it is the motif Babylon which speaks to us of this present world system that is against God and His Christ. It is that which is the world system, that is a spiritual realm, whereby it is controlled, as we've already seen, by the devil and his beasts. And the reality is that we're talking here about its fall, its, if you like, destruction. So you have Angel 1, and he's speaking of judgment. Angel 2, and he's speaking of destruction. And then Angel 3, we read here is the angel who declares eternal condemnation and it's opened up a little bit further if anyone worships the beast in its image and receives a mark on his forehead or on his hand he also will drink the wine of God's wrath poured full strength into the cup of his anger and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the lamb and the smoke of their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day or night. It is a picture of eternal punishment. So here we have this sobering emphasis of these three angels in this vision speaking to us of the final judgment of God, the final destruction of God of this world and the eternal punishment of God upon all who are part of this world and outside of Christ. Now this fits very clearly with much of the New Testament. Look back for a moment to Matthew chapter 25. Let's just see how the eschatology, that is the last things of the New Testament, fits together here. In Matthew chapter 25, verse 31, we read these words, When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the angels with Him, Then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations. And he will separate people one from another, as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the king will say to those on the right, Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. Now, go down a little bit. and go down to verse 41. Then he will say to those on his left, and for those of you who don't believe in a universal judgment, you've got a serious problem with this passage. But the reality is, I don't want to get into that at the moment. I want you just to see what's going on. Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire, prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink. Now notice verse 46. And these will go away into eternal punishment. But the righteous into eternal life. Now what you have back here in Revelation 14 is essentially John the Apostle speaking of the same thing. He's already spoken of the righteous and the eternal glory of the redeemed. Now he's speaking of the unrighteous and he's speaking of the judgment of God upon them. Now listen to what the Apostle Paul says in 2 Thessalonians. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. 2 Thessalonians chapter 1. Let's read from verse 5. This is evidence of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be considered worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you are also suffering. He's writing to first century Christians. They're suffering for their faith. And notice what he says. Since indeed God considers it just, to repay with affliction those who afflict you, and to grant relief to you who are afflicted as well as to us, when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels. in flaming fire, inflicting vengeance on those who do not know God and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. They will suffer the punishment of eternal destruction, away from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His might. When He comes on that day to be glorified in His saints, Paul teaches a universal judgment. There is no doubt about that. It's not the judgment in stages and this is going to happen. When it happens, it's over. When Jesus comes again, it is finished. And there will be a separation of the sheep and the goats. And there will be clearly a judgment of all mankind. And the redeemed of the Lord shall go into the new heavens and the new earth. And those who are not the redeemed of the Lord, as we'll see later in Revelation, shall go into the place of eternal punishment. To try and chop it up and make it say other things is simply contrived and is simply an inaccurate handling of the Word of God. And so we see here that the sober emphasis of these three angels back in Revelation 14 is a contrast to what is in Revelation 14 1-5 and the redeemed of the Lord. It is speaking to us of judgment, it is speaking to us of destruction, it is speaking to us of eternal condemnation. Now that's a serious thing for us to have to consider in this secular age. And I want you to see very clearly that that is the clear focus of this passage at this point. John has now moved from speaking to us of the glorious vision of the consummate glory of the church at the end of the age to what is going to happen to those who are not part of the body of Christ, to those who are not in Christ, to those who are not the redeemed of the Lord at the end of the age. And we must see this, we must understand this, that we're going to make sense of the whole body of the New Testament with regards to what's going to happen at the end of the world. Otherwise we will get all confused and we'll make the Bible say things that it simply doesn't say. And we see, do we not, here the remarkable contrast that is taking place. between the final eternal rest of the redeemed as they're depicted as the 144,000 with the lamb on Mount Zion and that part of the vision with now the horror and the terror and the horrible things that are represented to us in this particular vision regarding what is going to come. on the unredeemed. What is going to come on the world at the end of the age? The judgement of God is destined to fall upon the whole unbelieving world. God is going to bring down the world system that is against him, that blinds men, that causes them to live in rebellion, that leads them in opposition to God. He is going to judge all who are the subjects who worship the beast and his image. And they will experience the terror, the horror of eternal punishment. This is a passage that when a Jehovah's Witness comes to your door, you can turn it up and say, look, can you explain this to me? Their torment goes up forever and ever and they have no rest day or night. How can that be annihilation? How can that be ceasing to exist? The language clearly speaks of that which never ceases to exist, but that which goes on and on and on and on forever. So here we have the reality here, the sober focus, the sober emphasis of these angels. It is judgment, it is destruction, it is eternal condemnation upon this world system. Upon all who are not redeemed by the precious blood of the Lamb of God. As we think about that, we think to ourselves, well, why would this have any significance to Christians? Well that's the second thing I want you to see, the purpose of this passage for a Christian because actually this passage is particularly written for Christians more than for non-Christians although I think there's an application there and I'll bring that in a minute to the unbeliever I want you to see that the emphasis clearly in this passage is John writing these things, revealing these things to Christians and there's a purpose, notice what it says, verse 12 gives us the answer Here is a call for the endurance of the saints Those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. Now, we've got to go back and put ourselves in John's shoes again. Here is this aging apostle, probably in his seventies, maybe his eighties. He's on the Isle of Patmos remember it's a penal Roman colony whereby he's probably in jail in a cell in some shape or form because he's been preaching the gospel and they've told him not to do it and he said I'm going to do it anyway and they've exiled him to this little island that's in the Aegean Sea between Greece and Turkey and as he looks out across the waters he thinks of the seven churches that he's already written to He knew them, certainly the church at Ephesus we know that John had a very close connection with. And as he's thinking about the reality of the first century with the power of Rome and the oppression of Rome and the seduction of Rome and the temptation for many Christians to compromise their faith by basically offering incense to the realm of Caesar and the idols of Caesar just in order to economically survive. We see here that John records for the saints, first of all, the glory that is yet to come for all who are in Christ, but then the horror. for all who compromise and follow the world. And he says this is a call for the endurance of the saints that you will keep the commandments of God and remain faithful to Jesus in the face of the realities of a hostile and a seductive world. Now what is John concerned about? He's concerned about what every pastor's concerned about. He's concerned about the faithfulness of the church. He's concerned about the faithfulness of the Christians. He's concerned that the people of God will stand firm in the face of the hostility of the world and the wiles of the devil. That they will not conform to the world and they will not compromise with the world, but they will follow Jesus Christ all the way to heaven. His concern is that they will identify clearly the realities of what is going on in the world in which we live. And the reality is that nothing has changed. In 2,000 years nothing has changed with regards to the period of redemptive history that you and I are in. With the period of redemptive history that John was in when he wrote this. Now it's true the Roman Empire has come and gone. And many other empires have come and gone as well. And the American Empire is coming and going too. The British Empire went a long time ago. So much so now they're making movies about our Prime Ministers, which I went to see when I was home, but that's another story. But here's the reality for us as Christians, you see, we are to view the world through the lens of God's Word. And we are to understand reality, as Ted Shipp put it so well today in our class, we are to understand reality in the light of what the Word of God teaches. You see, all that we see is not all that there is. There is a spiritual unseen realm. God is in control of all things, but there are powers of darkness. There are forces of darkness led up by the devil himself and influencing this world in order to be against God and against Jesus Christ and against his church. And we who by grace have been brought out of the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light, we are to look at life then with spiritual discernment through the lens of the Word of God that we might be maintaining a faithful testimony, a faithful witness to Jesus Christ and the truth of God's Holy Word. And brothers and sisters, it's very important that we understand this in our generation. My dear young people, it's critically important that you understand this in your generation too, because the Western civilization that our grandparents grew up in, which was a much more Judeo-Christian sympathetic culture, is being quickly swept away. That doesn't mean God has lost control. In fact, if ever the words of John were relevant, they're relevant for our generation. Because the reality is, you see, that God's judgment is coming. Now it may not be our generation, I'm not one of these people who, could be us, maybe it's us, it's going to be us, it has to be us, signs of the times. I really just can't be bored with all that stuff. Just being honest with you. There was a time I thought that was a good idea but I really think it's a complete and utter load of nonsense. Just being honest. Don't get into that. No man knows the day nor the hour. And as we've seen recently in California, certainly Harold Camping doesn't. And we see the folly of all of that silly predicting. We're not supposed to get into that. We're supposed to trust God and live for Christ. No matter what. The world could go on for another 5,000 years. I wonder what they'll say about America in 5,000 years or the British Empire in 5,000 years. Like the way we talk about the Roman Empire and we all get on these tours and you go and look at the ruins. You know where they get buses, tours of America where they'll go to the... Detroit could be probably one that they'll go to quite quickly because I hear that it's kind of falling apart already. But the reality is Sorry if you were born in Detroit and you love Detroit, it's not unoffensive. At the end of the day, if you go to Edinburgh, you'll see the ruins there too. But the reality is, this world is falling apart. It is heading downward. Because it's under God's curse, because of rebellion. And we need to understand this, we need to see this, you see, as Christians, we need to recognise all the ideologies that are not biblical, they are against Christ. All the philosophies that are not biblical, they are against Christ. All the values that are not biblical, they are against Christ. All the belief systems of the world that are not biblical, they're against Christ. And they're all part of, you see, the devil's great ploy. And the same to our family this morning as we were sitting having family worship. It doesn't matter what lie you believe, as long as it's not the truth you're believing, the devil doesn't care. As just as long as you buy a lie, there's millions of them, just buy one, and that's all you need to go to hell. But there's only one truth that will take you to heaven. Jesus Christ and Him crucified. And you see that's why people don't like Christianity by nature because they say well that's narrow. Yeah it's really narrow by the way. It's so narrow there's only enough room for one way. That's very bigoted. Well it's not bigoted. It's lying. To tell you the truth is to love you. It's not to hate you. To warn you of the things that are coming from the Word of God. I mean, read this passage. It is a terrifying passage. It is a horrifying passage. I don't take any pleasure in this passage. Oh yeah, great, the world's going to fall apart and God's going to judge it. Everybody's going to be turned into eternal hell. And I'm really happy about that. No, I'm not. Neither is God. God says He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked. But His holiness and His justice and His wrath, they are of equal significance to His love and His grace and His mercy. And if you don't understand that, you don't understand the true character of God. You have not grasped the immensity of God. And you've got to hold all of these things in balance in order to make sure that you are worshipping the true and the living God and not some God that you've decided to make up in your sentimentality in order to avoid the hard things. And here as Christians, we are being exhorted by John in the light of the glory of the redeemed and the eternal punishment of the unredeemed. We are being called to Be faithful and persevere in the Lord. Why? Because this world that we see, it's coming to an end eventually. God is going to judge it. God is going to destroy it. And God is going to cast all who are not in Christ into eternal punishment. But remember, the first part of the vision, that the redeemed of the Lord will enjoy eternal glory with God. And therefore, what is Don't measure everything by what you see. Measure everything by what you see in the Word of God. Have an eternal perspective on life. Live your life, not only for the here and now, but for the there and then. Have an eternal perspective. And I tell you, my dear brothers and sisters, you know, having just buried my father, and having looked into a grave and saw my name on that coffin, even though it was my dad's name, because we have the same name, It brings your own mortality very close to your face. And you realize there is a day coming when it will be my turn. What am I living for? And what do I really believe about life and death and eternity? You see, you can put your confidence in the stock market. You can put your confidence in Wall Street. You can put your confidence in the White House. You can put your confidence in yourself or in your education. And all of it will pass away. And it will avail you nothing when death comes. For you can be sure, having brought nothing into this world, you're taking nothing out. And it will be your standing with Christ, your relationship with Christ that will determine whether it is eternal glory or eternal punishment. And as Christians we need to evaluate this brothers and sisters and we need to keep evaluating this. Isn't it true that the world at times it can seem so attractive and it draws us to compromise with it. Other times it's so hostile it's just trying to crush us into conformity. But we as God's people we have to know what we believe, why we believe it and we must hold fast to these truths God's word teaches. And I don't know about you, but I don't find that easy. In fact, it's actually impossible, apart from the work of the Holy Spirit. It's actually impossible. None of us can hold fast to the truth of God's Word unless we have been born again from above, genuinely. You see, John was an old man. He was an old pastor. And I know that John had seen Christians die for their faith. But he'd also seen other professing Christians turn from their faith and leave the church and go back to the world. My dear brothers and sisters, what this really is to us this morning in this passage is a call to perseverance. A call to be faithful to the end. One of the things that was interesting for me in the death of my dad was to know that he went to church in the morning and he went to heaven in the afternoon. And in all the testimonies that I heard, the reality was that he finished well. And you see, that's really all that matters. It's not that you start well and don't finish, because that means you're not saved. You might stumble and fumble around for a while until you find your feet. But eventually, if you're truly a Christian, you will finish well and you must all be committed to that I must be committed to that I want you to finish well You should want me to finish well. That's why we are in fellowship together to encourage each other to continue as we face the oppression of the world, the seduction of the world, the challenges of a hostile world that hates Christ and hates the gospel and wants to destroy the church and wants to tell us to imbibe values that are not biblical, philosophies that are not biblical, ideologies that are not biblical. We must say, no, we are going to stand firm and be faithful to the Word of God all the way to the end of our days. Because you see brothers and sisters there is a heaven to gain and a hell to shun. And as the people of God we are called to persevere in this world that is cursed because of sin and is under God's condemnation and judgment because of his righteousness. And we must stay the course all the way to the end of our days. So John's concern in setting before us the glory of the redeemed and the horror of the unredeemed in this passage is to spur us on. Spur us on to eternal glory. Set before us our glorious future and warn us of the horrors of what is coming upon those who do not know Jesus. So that we are not tempted to say, you know what? It's probably better just to live the worldly life than live the Christian life. And sometimes we can be tempted that way. Let's be honest. Sometimes it looks like to me that the unbelievers just get it a lot easier. And at the end of the day it would just be easier to go that path. Oh my dear brother, my dear sister, don't allow the devil to tempt you. The older we get, I think the more challenging it becomes. When death comes, as it has to my life in the last few weeks, it faces you with, do you really believe this? Or is it just an idea that you've picked up because it was passed on to you? You see, my dear young people, listen to me. Your faith needs to be your faith. You won't get into heaven on your mum and dad's faith. It needs to authentically be yours. You need an authentic relationship with Jesus yourself. And dear parents, recognize that with your children. And don't give them false hope. And don't give them false assurance. The worst thing you can do is to give them false hope and false assurance. Better to know they're not yet in the kingdom and how to deal with that than pretend they are in the kingdom and then on the final day you find out that was a fatal mistake to make. We need to be honest and open about the realities of grace being present in our lives or grace not being present in our lives. For those of us who are older we need to recognise but as we get closer to the end of our own days the hill gets steeper but the grace continues to flow and we must not lose heart because at the top of the hill is the glory of heaven and the new heavens and the new earth and we must continue to press on no matter what God brings to us in this veil of tears. And so this message, the purpose of this passage I think is for the Christian to spur them on to greater faithfulness in the face of what is before the Christian in contrast with what is before the non-Christian at the end of the age. That brings me then to the last thing I want to say, the message of this passage for the unbeliever. Because I think that there is an application here, though secondary I do confess. To those of you who might be here this morning and you're not a Christian, And it's quite possible in a gathering this size, there are those of you who are here and you're not saved. This is a terrifying passage for you. Because you're reading about what you're heading towards right now. If you don't repent and believe the gospel. If you don't turn from your sins, believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You are going to experience the terror and the horror of what John is describing here in this vision. You are going to experience the judgment of God on your sins. You are going to experience the destruction of this present evil world. You are going to experience, and this is a really hard doctrine, eternal punishment in the lake of fire. Now, I believe these things are symbolic, they're metaphorical for the wrath of God, the justice of God being meted out upon the soul forever and ever and ever. The Bible talks about the place where the worm does not die and the fire is not quenched and a place of gnashing of teeth and it's all in order to honestly help us to realize how terrifying it will be to incur the wrath of God and I take no pleasure in telling you that today but I have to tell you that today because this is part of the gospel you are heading right now if you're not a Christian you are heading into the eternal wrath of God that is a fearful proposition and if you therefore Continue in the path of rebellion, in the path of sinfulness, in the path of hostility towards God, and you die. You'll go to the place called hell, but you'll be resurrected again on the final day to receive a body, not like the body of the righteous that will enable them to inhabit eternity and eternal glory. No, a body that will actually be fitted for you to experience eternal punishment forever and ever and ever. You say, this is scare tactics. I say, no, it's not scare tactics. It's reality. You see, the God with whom you and I have to do is the God who made us and who is holy and who hates sin. We as human beings, we have turned away from him. and rebelled against him and we have transgressed his laws and because he is holy and because he is of purer eyes the Bible says than to behold iniquity which means he is of such holiness and character that he cannot in any way condone, tolerate, accept sinfulness he must punish sin. Now that means that if you do not believe in the one whom God has provided in order to bring about the forgiveness of sins, Jesus Christ, whereby God will then pardon you because of Christ, you must pay for your own sins in the way that God has from the beginning of the world set it all up. And my dear friend this morning, I want you to understand this. I say this to you out of love. I do not say this to you in any other reason. It is out of love for your soul because you are driving your car off the cliff and it is going to career into eternal condemnation. I'm saying to you, stop. Repent, turn around and believe in Jesus Christ. Come to God through faith in his son. will pardon your sins and you will enter into the redeemed of the Lord who will experience glory rather than the unredeemed who are going to face the horrors of eternal hell. In this secular age where basically people just believe that when you die it's over and nothing else is to be said it's one of the greatest lies the devil has ever been able to propagate. Right now, people are dying and going to hell. You do not need to die and go to hell if you will repent of your sins and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. You can receive eternal life. You can be saved from the wrath that is to come. This passage, whilst primarily focused on giving Christians an incentive to press on in their faith, also functions, I believe, as a warning to those of you who are unbelievers about your need to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ in order to be saved. And so I say to you this morning, In the words of the angel, the first angel, fear God and give Him glory. His judgment is coming. And if you have not become a worshipper of Christ before His judgment comes, you will incur His judgment. And so I would say to you, why would you perish when eternal life is freely offered to you? through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Why would you perish? Why would you not turn and find in Christ salvation for your never-dying soul? See, that's the message it has for you this morning. And I recognise that these things in this secular age are mocked, scoffed at, not believed. But it doesn't change the fact that the Bible teaches these things. I believe them. And I'm going to declare them and proclaim them. It is appointed unto man. Once to die. And after that, the judgement. There is a day coming. A day of great wrath. As well as great salvation. The question you have to answer this morning is this. Which side of the fence are you going to be on? Are you going to be on the side of the sheep who will enter into the everlasting kingdom, or the side of the goats who will be cast into eternal punishment? The gospel is a message of great contrast. It is a message of great hope, but it is also a message of great warning. My dear friends, let us all make our calling and our election sure in the light of this vision of the angels and the judgment of God that is to come. Amen. Let's pray. Father, as we traffic in things sober and serious, we confess to you, Lord, that we don't feel the weight of these things as we should. We confess to you, Lord, in our secular age in which Even through the blessings of modern medicine, life is prolonged a lot more than it has been in past generations, that we do not stand at gravesides as often as our forefathers. We do not think of eternity as much as they did. Because in many ways, Lord, we confess that our secular age has softened us and made us to believe life will go on forever. But Father, Your Word paints a very different picture. And we ask this morning that we will believe Your Word. We ask this morning that You will grant us grace to take Your Word seriously, to see the glory of the redeemed on the one hand and the horror of the unredeemed on the other. And that there would be no one, Father, in this place this morning who continues in the way of rebellion into that terrible wrath that is coming. But rather, Father, by your grace, you would call sinners to Christ. That you would work by your Spirit. And for us, Lord, who are Christians, O Father, may these things be written on our hearts in such a way that we will desire to persevere to the end. That we will resist the devil that he might flee from us. That we would identify clearly with Christ and the truth of the Word of God. And that our lives would be continually shaped by the eternal Word that you've given us. Until we come to eternal glory. For we ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.